TERMS & NAMES 3 TheThe ImpactImpact ofof encomienda plantation slavery ColonizationColonization African Diaspora middle passage racism MAIN IDEA WHY IT MATTERS NOW Columbian Spanish rule in the Americas had The effects of slavery, including Exchange terrible consequences for Native racism, helped shape attitudes and Americans and Africans. social conditions in the United States. ONE AMERICAN’S STORY Huamán Poma, a Peruvian Native American, was angry about the abuse the Spanish heaped upon Native Americans. He wrote to King Philip III of Spain to complain about the bad treatment. A VOICE FROM THE PAST It is their [the Spanish] practice to collect Indians into groups and send them to forced labor without wages, while they themselves receive the payment for the work. The royal administrators and the other Spaniards lord it over the Indians with absolute power. Huamán Poma, Letter to a King In his letter, Poma asked the king to help the Native Americans and uphold the rule of law in Peru. Regardless, the Spanish colonists continued to mistreat Native Americans as the Spaniards expanded their empire in the Americas. In time, colonists from Spain and other European nations would import millions of Africans to the Americas and enslave them A Spanish priest as well. For the members of these subjected groups, forces a Native American colonization was devastating. American woman to work at a loom. Life in Spanish America The Spanish Empire grew rapidly, despite efforts by other European countries to compete with Spain. By 1700, it controlled much of the Americas. Spain took several steps to establish an effective colonial gov- ernment. First, it divided its American empire into two provinces called New Spain and Peru. Each province was called a viceroyalty.The top offi- cial of each viceroyalty was called the viceroy. He ruled in the king’s name. The Spaniards made sure that people with Spanish backgrounds held power in the colonies. Just below the Spanish were the Creoles—people of Spanish descent who were born in the colonies. The next step down European Exploration of the Americas 59 Spain’s American Empire, 1700 NORTH 40°N the social order were the mestizos. AMERICA Mestizos are people of mixed Spanish ATLANTIC and Native American ancestry. The OCEAN people with the least power and W Tropic of Cancer EST fewest rights were Native Americans IN Mexico DI and enslaved Africans. City ES CENTRAL The Catholic Church played an AMERICA important role in Spanish colonial society. In places like New Mexico 0 1,000 Miles 0° Equator and California, the church built mis- 0 2,000 Kilometers sions, settlements that included a Viceroyalty Lima church, a town, and farmlands. The of New Spain Viceroyalty SOUTH goal of the missions was to convert of Peru AMERICA Native Americans to Christianity. Tropic of Capricorn The missions also increased Spanish 120 80 40 PACIFIC ° ° control over the land. ° W W W OCEAN Some Spanish colonists received encomiendas to help them make the ° 40 S colonies productive. An encomienda was a grant of Native American labor. GEOGRAPHY SKILLBUILDER Interpreting Maps The Spanish rulers also created large Background In precolonial 1. Location Which viceroyalty included the West Indies? estates, called haciendas, to provide America, forms 2. Region Which viceroyalty covered more territory? food for the colony. Haciendas often of slavery were became plantations, large farms that practiced by some Skillbuilder raised cash crops, such as sugar, cof- Native Americans and differed Answers fee, and cotton, which were in great demand in Europe. The Spanish 1. New Spain greatly among 2. Peru forced Native Americans to work on these plantations. different peoples. Most Spaniards treated the Native Americans as little more than beasts of burden, forcing countless numbers of them to work in the fields and mines. In addition, some missionaries mistreated them by forcing them to work terrribly hard. Other missionaries, though, tried to protect Native Americans from being treated cruelly. One missionary in particular who fought for better treatment of Native Americans was Bartolomé de Las Casas. Las Casas, a Catholic priest, fought against the abuse of Native Americans, earning the title “Protector of the Indians.” Due largely to his efforts, Spanish authorities passed laws providing greater protection for Native Americans. Most colonists, how- ever, ignored the laws. In 1680, a man named Popé led the Pueblo Indians in a rebellion A. Summarizing against the Spanish. His forces surrounded the Spanish settlement at In what ways did the Spanish Santa Fe, in present-day New Mexico, and forced the colonists to flee mistreat Native temporarily from the region. Americans? A. Answer by enslaving them The Emergence of American Slavery and trying to As more and more Native Americans died from overwork and European replace their diseases, the Spanish and Portuguese turned to another source for labor: religions and traditions enslaved Africans. Slavery is the practice of holding a person in bondage 60 CHAPTER 2 for labor. The Europeans enslaved Africans for four basic reasons. First, Africans were immune to most European diseases. Second, Africans had The images above no friends or family in the Americas to help them resist or escape show how slave enslavement. Third, enslaved Africans provided a permanent source of traders packed cheap labor. Even their children could be held in bondage. Fourth, many enslaved Africans onto slave ships Africans had worked on farms in their native lands. for the middle In the early 1500s, European traders began bringing Africans to the passage. Vocabulary Americas for slave labor. This forced removal has become known as the diaspora: the African Diaspora. Before the slave trade ended in the late 1800s, scattering of approximately 12 million Africans had been enslaved and shipped to people outside their homeland the Western Hemisphere. The voyage of the slave ships from Africa to the Americas was called the middle passage. The voyage was given this name because it was the middle leg of the triangular trade. The triangular trade refers to the movement of trade ships between Europe, Africa, and the Americas. You will learn more about the triangular trade in Chapter 4. Olaudah Equiano (oh•LOW•duh EHK•wee•AHN•oh) was one of these kidnapped Africans. He made this journey in the 1700s. He was about 11 years old when he was sold into slavery. Later, after he bought his freedom, he wrote his life story and described the terror of the middle passage. A VOICE FROM THE PAST The first object which saluted my eyes when I arrived on the coast, was the sea, and a slave ship . waiting for its cargo. These filled me with astonishment, which was soon converted into terror, when I was carried on board. Olaudah Equiano, quoted in Great Slave Narratives It is estimated that perhaps two million Africans died during the middle passage. Those who survived faced a hard life in the Americas. Some were taken to large homes where they worked as servants. Most were forced to do hard labor in haciendas or mines. 61 Many slaves resisted slavery by running away or rebelling. To prevent rebellion, the Spanish government passed slave codes, laws to regulate the treatment of slaves. Some of these laws tried to soften the harsh con- ditions of slavery, but most were designed to punish slaves and keep B. Analyzing them in bondage. Causes What Over time, Europeans came to associate slavery with black Africans. could have To many Europeans, dark skin color became a sign of inferiority. Slavery, caused slave traders to treat which developed to provide a labor force, led to racism. Racism is the other humans belief that some people are inferior because of their race. with such cruelty? The slave trade lasted 400 years, from the 1500s until the 1800s. By the B. Possible Response They 1700s, all the American colonies of European countries had African slaves. saw the slaves as Despite the horrors of slavery, Africans survived in part by clinging to goods that had to their African cultures, including their artistic heritage of dance, music, be kept alive but little more. Over and storytelling. The slave trade brought together people from different time, racism parts of Africa with different cultural traditions. The experience of slav- played an ery helped create a common African-based culture in the Americas. important role in maintaining this African culture would become one of the forces that shaped life in the attitude. American colonies. The Columbian Exchange The arrival of Europeans in the Americas brought more than a clash of peoples and cultures. It also brought a movement of plants, animals, and diseases between the Eastern and Western hemispheres. This movement of living things between hemispheres is called the Columbian Exchange. One result of the Columbian Exchange was the transfer of germs from Europe to the Americas. When Europeans came to America, they brought with them germs that caused diseases such as smallpox, measles, and influenza. Native Americans had no immunity to them. The Columbian Exchange EUROPE Potatoes Tomatoes Corn Peanuts NORTH PE, AFRICA, AND ASIA Turkeys EURO AMERICA S TO ICA ER Vanilla AM Pumpkins Beans Squash Cacao Honeybees Disease Sugar Cane • Smallpox Pineapples • Influenza Tobacco Bananas Grapes • Typhus • Measles Livestock Peppers Citrus Fruits • Malaria AS • Cattle • Diphtheria IC ER Grains • Sheep • Whooping Sweet AM TO • Wheat • Pigs Cough Potatoes E D ASIA UROPE, AFRICA, AN • Rice • Horses • Barley Peaches, • Oats Coffee Beans Pears AFRICA Onions Olives Turnips 62 Although exact numbers are unknown, historians estimate that dis- C. Making eases brought by Europeans killed more than 20 million Native Inferences What might have hap- Americans in Mexico in the first century after conquest. Many scholars pened if Native agree that the population of Native Americans in Central America Americans had decreased by 90 to 95 percent between the years 1519 and 1619.